Building a Big Ol' Support Beam with Nothing But Traditional Joinery

When Jesse de Geest—"The Samurai Carpenter"—set out to reinforce the ceiling of his new workshop and the floor of room above, there were a couple of different ways he might have gone about it. The one he chose involves all traditional joinery, not a screw or nail of non-wooden material, and the process is just a joy to watch.

Geest documented the whole project in a mesmerizing YouTube video that flips between timelapse and real-time to give you a feeling of everything that went into the project of building the mammoth reinforcing arches, from carving up 20-foot beams to working with a 30-inch chisel. It's a perfect afternoon watch for those of us who can't go out and build something ourselves.